Firewall

Firewall

Sometimes searching through a DVD bargain bin will yield up a nice buy at a sweet price. I recently found the Harrison Ford action/crime/thriller Firewall at a decidedly below market price of US $4.

That's a fair price for a 2006 film that I somehow missed in it's theatrical run. Though Ford was 63 years old when he made this film. he still had to get through two action (I mean fighting for his life) sequences in this by-the-numbers film directed by the veteran helmsman Richard Loncraine.

The premise is simple, and the multiple taglines tell all:

• They will make him steal, but he will make them pay
• Everything he loves is about to be used against him
• Nothing is more dangerous than a man with nothing to lose

Ok without giving too much away, Ford as Jack Stanfield is the Security Chief of a fictional Seattle bank. He's married with two kids - and its the usual mix - a teenaged daughter and a sub-teen son. His wife is portrayed by the attractive Virgina Madsen. And yes, they live in a fabulous home that overlooks Puget Sound (supposedly), and they have a cute dog named Rusty.



Stanfield's life is already upset because he's been asked to by his boss played by Alan Arkin (above) to 'get along' with his counterpart from another bank, played by Robert Patrick (Terminator 2) that is merging with their bank.



The predictament that Jack will face is that he must help a gang of thieves rob his own bank of more than a hundred million dollars. And the leverage they have is that they've grabbed his wife and kids. Jack will have to rob the bank or lose his family.

Sound familiar? Desperate Hours anyone?

So Jack's technical expertise about his bank, and a computer program written by the thieves, are what Jack must utilize. He'll also jerry-rig somethings ala MacGyver to give the film more spice.

But the format of this type of story is written in stone. The baddies can't remove Jack's family from the equation, because if they do, they lose their leverage on Jack.



Jack is going to find a way through this - he is after all the lead, so he must prevail.



Okay, Paul Bettany (above) plays the evil Billy Cox, leader of the gang, and he's pretty good in the role. His gang of associates don't really do much except threaten. You know, ratcheting up the fear factor is always needed in this type of film.

Though set in Seattle, much of the film is either indoors (the bank or the Stanfield home) and when not indoors it outside at night an in the rain. Which leads me to believe that most of the film may not have actually been shot in Seattle. It wasn't.



Harrison Ford is always worth watching. His role as Han Solo in the Star Wars franchise (70'S), as Indiana Jones (80's), and as Jack Ryan (90's) have pretty much established him as several of all filmdom's most beloved action heroes. His place on the pantheon is secure.

But he's getting a little long-in-the-tooth for a rooftop b & e's in a driving rainstorm, and for the hand-to-hand, his life-hanging-in-the-balance, to the death, fights that he was asked to perform for Firewall.



On balance, despite the story line which we've all seen before, despite it's predictability, despite Ford's age, and despite the many, many plotholes in this desperate man film, it will still hold your interest. At $4, it was an entertainment bargain.  
 

Recommendations: Chak De! India